Say hello to our new one true love, the as yet unnamed male southern white rhinoceros calf born in Dublin Zoo on Thursday afternoon, to proud mother Ashanti and father Chaka and a “delighted” Dublin Zoo staff.
He’s Ashanti’s fifth calf, and marks a serious success story for the zoo, which is involved in the European Endangered Species Programme – he’ll join the rest of the herd, Sam, Reni, Zanta and Nyala in the African Savannah.
The new calf is a bonny wee boy, weighing a mere 60kgs at birth – that’s nine and a half stone in old money – and is now looking for a name, Neverending Story-style, with the Zoo asking people to submit their suggestions here.
The southern white rhino population dropped to as low as 50 in the wild in the early 1900s, but there was then a big increase until this was the most common rhino species. Until – of course – humans got interested, and the massive surge in poaching has seen big threats to all of the world’s rhinos. #rageface
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